Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adv. In the dark.
- adj. Occurring or enacted in the dark.
- adj. Dark; dim.
- n. The dark: "She carried some rugs for me through the shrubbery in the darkling” ( H.G. Wells).
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- In the dark.
- Hence Blindly; uncertainly.
- Dark; obscure; gloomy.
- Blinded.
- Rendering dark; obscuring.
- Sitting in the dark.
Wiktionary
- n. darkness
- n. fantasy a creature that lives in the dark
- adj. dark; darkening
- adj. obscure, done or happening 'in the dark' or unseen
- adv. in the dark, obscurely
- v. present participle of darkle.
GNU Webster's 1913
WordNet 3.0
- adj. uncannily or threateningly dark or obscure
- adj. (poetic) occurring in the dark or night
Etymologies
- From Middle English derkelyng, from derk ("dark") + -lyng ("-ling"). (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Then clipt and clung about his breast enveiled in darkling room.”
“And died in darkling air no more to be for ever shown.’”
“Plus, if I just threw in some multisyllabic words, extended my sentences until each was a paragraph long, and used "darkling" a few times, I'd be the Faulkner of Phoenix.”
“Many of her class set out by being impostors, and end by becoming enthusiasts, or hold a kind of darkling conduct between both lines, unconscious almost when they are cheating themselves, or when imposing on others.”
“Many of her class set out by being impostors and end by becoming enthusiasts, or hold a kind of darkling conduct between both lines, unconscious almost when they are cheating themselves or when imposing on others.”
“Mine was the woman, darkling I found her,'" he hummed, significantly.”
“To him I reported every detail that occurred when he was not with me; and he, with furrowed brows, sitting darkling by the hour, like a patient spider unravelled the tangle and spun the web afresh.”
“They vanished in the darkling air, but a moment later, two of the distant figures fell, pinned to the ground.”
“Standing recently upon the heathery crest of Hartcliff Hill we looked due west, where the Woodhead Road climbs Bord Hill, where the darkling moortops were suddenly illuminated.”
“He advocates despair in the face of life on a darkling plain on which ignorant armies clash by night, a wasteland.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘darkling’.
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EN - archaic words
abide, abjure, abroad, adamant, afield, aforetime, aghast, anon, apace, argent, assuage, aught and 328 more...
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my fab list
blowsabella, aperçu, froideur, salubrious, abject, gallipot, mumchance, wainscot, virago, macerate, lascivious, clandestine and 181 more...
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Colour & light
Beautiful words for the things we sense.
opaline, verdigris, opalescent, lustrous, nacreous, gloaming, lambent, lucent, darkling, glister, lapis, sapphire and 24 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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♥
ambrosia, inamorata, gossamer, lily-white, hummingbird, roucoulement, poppy, daisy, calypso, lunula, lamb, dove and 1526 more...
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ChortleGiggleSnort
Significant Words- Guiding you on your path to Snazzibility
flimsy, feeble, ranting, ramble, narky, snazzy, yoghurt, bulbous, pustule, globulous, geranium, megalomaniac and 521 more...
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ShuckFinn's Words
abecedarian, conflate, mondegreen, whit, truculent, downright, pugnacious, effluvium, canker, inveigle, obfuscate, melancholy and 227 more...
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The Whiteness of the Whale
Words in Melville's "Moby Dick"
grapnels, spile, pea coffee, farrago, grego, bosky, bombazine, brevet, cenotaph, cupidity, kelson, obliquity and 164 more...
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Wordplay
reticent, slammerkin, moonstruck, zephyr, gallivant, hullabaloo, pandemonium, equestrian, wallflower, martyr, threadbare, treacherous and 180 more...
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The Last Werewolf
This novel by Glen Duncan, aside from being a ripping yarn and beautifully written, is just littered with words that I had to look up and discover that often his use of the word not only fitted per...
gurns, bok, chimney breast, dichotomy, Platonic form, filthy, Platonic Form, mathematics, BAM, skirls, clarity, blundering and 298 more...
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born2badored's Words
livid, fnordy, grok, bloopy, bokonon, disinformation, psychometrics, trip hop, acid jazz, bauble, dynamic, constant and 91 more...
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tranquill's Words
loquacious, unmitigated, trundle, ephemeral, vociferous, trapezoidal, liminal, obsequious, veracity, squash, onomatopoeia, oscillate and 267 more...
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miltonic
liberty, froth-becurlèd, host, huge-bellied, aghast, rills, gladsom, wrathfull, ordain, thunder-clasping, ruddy, warble and 264 more...
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sionnach's Words
contumely, fomite, holmgang, poltroon, eleemosynary, obsidian, nugatory, grindcore, felch, recrudescent, pyx, parenteral and 3271 more...
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Adverbia
A long list of adverbs, beginning with full-drive. Someone had to list them. This list in continued in the list More Adverbia.
Read some sniping and some informative commentary about a...full-drive, portentously, unlawfully, legally, heterogeneously, consumingly, clancularly, inconsolably, prepositionally, retrogressively, symptomatically, decrepitly and 2460 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for darkling.

sionnach And we are here as on a darkling plain
Swept with confused alarms of struggle and flight
Where ignorant armies clash by night.
– Matthew Arnold , Dover Beach. Nov 3, 2007
brtom ... as the wakeful Bird
Sings darkling, and in shadiest Covert hid
Tunes her nocturnal Note.
Milton, Paradise Lost III Dec 18, 2006